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Tag Archive | cheddar cheese

Last night I was looking through my ever thinning kitchen (payday is Friday) and trying to figure out what to make with the ingredients we have. I have been thinking about stuffed chicken breast for a while, and realized we had enough to make it that night. The last time I made it years ago, I used goat cheese, spinach and garlic as my filling. That was before I was married I believe, and it was the first candle lit dinner my now husband and I have ever had.

This time we had cream cheese instead so I used that.

I get Foster Farms 10 lb bags of frozen chicken breasts at Costco…and the breasts are HUGE! I thawed out two breasts and got my filling ready.

The filling was super easy. I sauteed some 3 cloves of garlic (lets say one or two in the future though) in a little butter. Once that is done, throw in a large handful of spinach to wilt a little in the butter. Once it wilts just a little, starts turning bright green, throw the mix in the food processor with 8 oz of cream cheese (it probably could have been less).

I butterflied two chicken breasts, and split the filling between two chicken breasts. It could probably be up to four breasts for that much filling as mine were over filled. I used my hands to try to shape a pad of the cream cheese mixture to fit into the breast. I opened up the chicken breast and filled it up. then I did my best to close it around the filling, and placed them into a hot pan with some butter and olive oil. I seared one side, and the other side. Once both sides looked nice and golden brown, I put the pan into the oven at 400 degrees for 25 minutes. Once the internal temp of the meat was 160 degrees. The chicken opened up and some of the filling came pouring out which turned out amazing with the next step. 🙂

I put a slice or two of cheddar on top of the chicken, and broiled it until the cheese was melted and bubbly. This caused the filling that had poured out to crisp up, and become very savory. This also firmed up the filling and made it easier to to take out of the pan and place on a plate.

What I love most is that this entire recipe only takes 5-6 ingredients and is actually really really easy!

The chicken came out perfectly moist. It looked nice and the flavors were great together!

Today I was going through Pinterest and trying t find some awesome weight watchers recipes. I came across enchilada stuffed peppers and in a separate recipe oven roasted potatoes. I asked my husband what he wanted, and he said he would prefer the enchiladas I was not surprised as I know he loves Mexican food. However, I was not going to try and figure out how to make enchilada sauce, nor did I really feel like fallowing the recipe. So after a quick glance on Laloosh.com, and realizing that I can’t get ingredients like quinoa, I decided to make up my own recipe.

First, I cut the tops off of the peppers, and took out the stems, seeds, and ribs. Then I boiled them for 2-3 minutes completely submerging them in the water.

Be very careful to pick these up with tongs when you pull them out of the water, and carefully dump the water back into the pot. Don’t let boiling water splash all over the place.

Next I emptied the water out of that pot, and put in 1 cup of rice. Then I put in three chicken breasts, 2 cups of grape tomatoes, 2 cups of onions, 1/2 a cup of pickled jalapenos 2 cloves of garlic, one package of taco seasoning, and one can of rinsed black beans. I put in 2 cups of water, and I covered the pot and brought it to a boil.

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Once it boiled, I turned the heat down to low. I checked on it and stirred it a few times, which I know you are not supposed to do while cooking rice, but I did it anyway.

Once the rice was cooked, I took the lid off and shredded the chicken by using two forks. I threw it back into the pot and added 2/3 of a cup of sour cream. (1/2 of a cup would have been better).

Next I scooped it into the peppers, and put a 1.5 oz. of cheese on the first four. (This recipe makes 8 but I don’t have 8 peppers right now)

Once they are all packeaged up with the lids and a little extra cheese (still in that 1.5 oz), I put them into the oven on 375 for about 15 minutes. This was mostly to get everything hot again, and to melt and get the cheese all crusty and good.

And this is what came out of the oven:

I sprinkled a few dried cilantro leaves over the top.

Here is what it looks like cut in half!

They have so much flavor and taste amazing! Best of all, each pepper is only 6 weight watchers points! I have to admit I was a bit shocked with all the dairy, but not bad!